Oura Ring 4 review: When doing less actually works better

It’s also surprisingly light. Oura says the Gen 4 ring is anywhere between 3.3-5.2g, depending on the size. The titanium build gives it a bit of that solid, well-made feel, but it never comes across as heavy or bulky. I wore it while cycling, while typing, just going about the usual day, and most of the time I forgot it was even there – which is probably what you want from a smart ring.

Fit still matters quite a bit, though. Oura does provide a sizing kit, that you can buy for $15 at Weareready.sg. Alternatively, you can also drop by Ante at Takashimaya Department Store to get a proper fitting, and I’d say it’s worth the extra step. With the Oura, or any smart ring actually, you really do want it to be a good fit – it should not be too right or loose.

The Experience

Using the Oura Ring daily didn’t feel all that different at first, at least coming from other smart rings. The magic where everything happens is of course, the Oura app.

On my iPhone 17 Pro, the Oura app is pretty clean, maybe even a bit restrained compared to some of the other smart rings’ apps – and I’m assuming the Android version of the app is more or less the same. Compared to the Ultrahuman’s app, for example, the difference is quite noticeable. The Ultrahuman app tends to throw a lot more data – such as graphs and metrics – at you upfront, which can feel useful but also a bit overwhelming at times. There’s a fair bit of learning curve required. Oura’s app, on the other hand, is a lot more simplified with its user-friendlier interface, and everything you see on the screen is easy to interpret and understand.

If you’re coming off the back of the Ultraman app like me, this can take a little while to adjust to because it does feel like you’re seeing less at first glance. But after a while, I started to appreciate how it gives an immediate snapshot of my three main scores (Readiness, Sleep and Activity) and current health metics like temperature and heart rate.

Sleep tracking is still very much the centrepiece here, and it’s also where the ring started to make the most sense to me. You get the usual breakdown of sleep stages, along with heart rate, heart rate variability, and body temperature trends, but it’s the way it all comes together that stands out more than any one metric. Mornings usually start with a quick check of the sleep score, followed by a bit of scrolling to see what actually happened overnight – and more often than not, it lines up quite well with how I felt.

What did stand out over time was how consistent the data felt. One of the issues I’ve had with the Ultrahuman Ring Air is the occasional odd reading when the ring shifts slightly, especially during sleep. The Oura Ring seems a bit more forgiving in that sense, and I never find myself second-guessing the data as much.

It also does a decent job picking up naps and shorter rest periods, which I didn’t think much of at first, but ended up noticing more over time. There were a few afternoons while working from home where I just lay down and snooze for a bit (sorry, boss) and didn’t log anything, only to see it show up later in the app. It’s a small thing, but it adds to that feeling that the ring is actually paying attention, even when you’re not.

Activity tracking, on the other hand, still feels a bit more secondary. It covers the basics – steps, general movement, estimated calories – but it’s not something I found myself relying on for workouts. I did wear it on a few cycling sessions, but I wasn’t really looking at it for performance data. If anything, it feels like the activity side exists more to feed into your overall readiness rather than to break down what you did in detail.

Battery life will vary depending on how often you track your workouts with it, but from my time with it, the Oura Ring is comparable to the Ultrahuman Ring Air – lasting between 5-6 days for me consistently. Charging is straightforward too, using the included charging dock.

Perhaps my only peeve, and a pretty big one at that, about the whole experience with the Oura Ring is that once your complimentary first-month trial expires, you lose a big chunk of the app’s features (and by extension, the ring’s too). You’re then made to decide if you want to continue having access to the following features for a monthly subscription of US$5.99.

• Detail insights: Access in-depth analysis of your sleep stages (deep REM, light), readiness and activity, rather than just a daily score
• Round-the-clock Heart Rate monitoring: Includes detailed heart rate tracking 24/7, as well as bloody oxygen (Sp02) sensing
• Third-party integration: Data sharing with Apple Health, Strava, etc
• Long-term data trends: Weekly, monthly and annual reports, rather than just the day’s data

That’s quite a chockful of key features to miss out on, as without a subscription the Oura Ring becomes basically a limited tracker – only being able to view Readiness, Sleep and Activity scores only.

Final thoughts – There’s always a catch

By the time I finished writing this review, I’d already spent more than a month with the Oura Ring 4, and I can say that I really do like it. Like, quite a bit more than the Ultrahuman Ring Air – at least when it comes to how it looks and how it feels to wear day to day. And if what you’re really after is a sleep tracker, this is probably the one I’d point to right now.

I think the Oura Ring 4 makes the most sense if you already buy into what a smart ring is meant to be. It’s not trying to replace a smartwatch, and in some ways, it doesn’t even try to compete. Things like detailed workout tracking still feel a bit thin here, but honestly, that’s where a smartwatch just makes more sense anyway. So I didn’t really see those as deal-breakers.

The bigger sticking point, though, is still the subscription. It’s one thing to pay for extra features, but here, it does feel like quite a bit of the experience sits behind that monthly fee. Without it, the ring still works, but it also feels like you’re only getting part of the picture. And that’s something you’ll have to be okay with going in, because once you get used to the full experience, it’s a bit hard to go back.

The Oura Smart Ring 4 is now available in Black and Silver for $529, the Stealth and Brushed Silver models for $599, and the Gold and Rose Gold variants at $749, at Ante at Takashimaya Department Store, Courts, Harvey Norman, Metapod at Changi Airport, and Weareready.sg.